


Survival of the Fittest

by orphan_account



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-11-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 00:13:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The US had turned into a ghostland, where only the strongest of will and mind survived. The team had been in the air when it first struck of the disaster, but will that save them?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own CM.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.  
-Winston Churchill

 

July 21st 2018

 

“Dr. Reid, I understand you may not want to talk about this, but it has to be done.” Frederick Spillane was short, bearded and slightly rounded. He had been sitting in an office all of his working life and was slightly uncomfortable at the task he was now being forced to do. 

“I will write out every last detail you want to know, when I so choose, but for now I just want to be able to adapt to life here.” The lithe man snarled. Spencer Reid had been a patient man. Patient, quiet, even bordering on meek. But that was a lifetime ago, it seemed fascinating to think he was once like that, but as David Rossi had said sometime back then “life is a hell of a thing to happen to someone.”

“We need the information as soon as possible Doctor.” 

“What for?” Spencer lifted an eyebrow in curiosity. 

“To check for more survivors.” 

Spencer laughed cold and harshly. “There were no more survivors.”

“How can you be so sure?” 

Spencer Reid leant forward. “Because if the elite agents of the FBI couldn’t, how do you even think it possible someone like you would find anyone?” 

Staring at the horrifically jagged healed scar running from the temple to the chin on the right hand side of the lithe mans face, Spillane was relieved there was a sheet of perplex glass between them.


	2. Caged Animal

July 21st 2018

 

Spencer Reid paced, he had been accustomed to offices, interview rooms and small surrounding, but being cooped up now after so long of having to be able to get free at a moments notice made him agitated. Not being able to defend himself unnerved him to the very core of his being. He had developed a keen sense of hearing, even through the gunfire, his eyes shifted side to side. To anyone looking at him he looked like a caged animal, staring at the door, waiting to escape. He knew it appeared that way and scoffed, it was true. This was alien to him. He had no idea where he was. As he had explained to the others after about a year, they have reverted back somewhat to more animalistic behaviours. They had a territory, and they defended it against all who entered. They hunted and brought home their spoils. 

Now they had left that environment, and had been brought here, only to be caged. These people feared them, and as a result would not even enter the rooms with them. He had lifted his lip into a contemptuous snarl when heavily armed men in gas masks forced them into different rooms, unarmed and vulnerable. 

He stopped and glared at the perplex glass that made the fourth side of the small square room he now found himself. He remembered that it was extremely durable, so to even try to break it would not be worth the effort, and he had a sneaking suspicion those who had them in this facility would not hesitate to shoot him for it. He had not survived everything to be killed in this hell hole. 

On the other side of the glass was a middle aged stern faced women and a somewhat frightened looking twenty something year old man. 

“Dr. Reid, I am Stephanie Den Bakker and this is my associate Samson Tatar, we are going to conduct this interview through the glass until your blood results return. We need to ensure we are not at risk of any sort of infection, is that understood?” her monotone voice explained over the intercom. 

“Why take us from there so? If you are so concerned, why take us?” 

“You may hold the key to everything, besides, if you are not in anyway dangerous, we could not, in good conscience leave you there.” The woman seemed confused by his question. 

“I am not in the mood to talk.” He dismissed, though as much as he wanted to portray his contempt by turning his back to the glass, he couldn’t. It went against his survival instinct to do so.

“We need to know what happened.”

“And we need to forget.” 

“From what we know Dr. Reid, you have an eidetic memory, it is impossible for you to forget.”

“So what? Because of that, I am not allowed even try?” Spencer barked. 

Though the glass separated them all, it terror in the young assistance’s face was blatant. 

“I understand.” The woman said in sympathy. 

Though he could not see her, even with his scarred face Spencer was able to raise both eyebrows in a sceptical look. 

“I have gathered the testimonials of thirty survivors. Though I did not personally go through what you and your friends went through, I am aware of the suffering you and those like you have gone through. The losses.” Spencer winced and she silenced for a moment. “I am sorry. We need to know what happened, how so many people lasted so long in a sparse landscape.”

“You answered your own question there.” His voice somewhat down trodden as the faces of lost loved ones flashed through his memory. He stared at the floor.

“May I get you something to eat perhaps before we start? Anything in particular?” 

“Anything that isn’t from a tin, something fresh.” 

“Of course, Samson.”

The intercom shut off. Spencer knew there was at least one person still behind the glass. But for a moment, he couldn’t care. All that was going through his mind were the faces. The smiles. The life long forgotten.


	3. Day Zero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> March 31st 2013

“All I am saying is I don’t want to have to be the one going between you and Kevin when you argue Baby Girl. It’s all too kiddies in the playground for my liking.” Derek Morgan walked through the bullpen with Penelope Garcia walking briskly in a pair of heels behind him. 

“But Der-rek.” The vivacious blonde pleaded. 

“Nah-ah.” I am not getting caught up in Mama drama.” He waved his finger. “That is just asking for trouble, am I right Pretty Boy?” 

Spencer took his eyes off the supposedly cryptic crossword in front of him and looked around at his colleagues. “Sorry?”

“Earth to Spence, are you in there?” JJ smiled waving her hands in front of the youngest team member jokingly. 

“Yeah sorry, I was concentrating on something.” 

Morgan looked at the paper in his friends hands. “Surely you of all people don’t need to concentrate to know which Irish author wrote the most iconic vampire novel of all time.” 

“What? No.” Spencer dismissed. “I was just thinking of what degree to do next.” 

“Another?” Derek gasped disbelievingly.

“Maybe something in Geographic Profiling or just Geography in general? You tend to be the one to go to for anything geography based on cases, why not just go for that?” Blake suggested, getting approving nods from the rest. 

“Maybe.” Spencer thought it worth dwelling on further. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be on vacation with Will and Henry in New Orleans?” he remembered looking to JJ.

“Yeah, but as is the BAU way, I got called in, which is odd considering everyone is here.” 

“We are all slaves to this job. Alright everyone, conference room now, we have a case to discuss.” Hotchner interrupted. 

“Oh joy.” JJ grimaced, and with that they headed to the said room and began to discuss the case. 

“So where are we off to this time?” Rossi asked, flicking through the gruesome pictures on the tablet in front of him. Spencer picked up his paper version and began looking at different statements from police and witnesses, each word burning into his memory as he did. 

“Nowhere in Oklahoma, and no, I kid you not boys and girls.” Garcia scolded as Rossi and Morgan began to snigger at the name of the small town. “And to be honest with you, the name is perfect, they don’t even have a proper town and it is like, nothing.”

“Nothing is actually the name of an abandoned town in Arizona. It was abandoned in May 2005 and again after a short lived revival from April 2009 when a man by the name of Mike Jensen bought the town land, but was abandoned again two years later.” Spencer rambled, he looked up from the pages in front of him at the end only to see funny looks from every other agent present, including a one brow raised Hotch. 

“Dear Lord why do you know that?” Rossi asked exasperatedly. 

“Like I said, Geography, think about it.” Blake stated, looking back to her tablet. 

“O-kay, well as I was saying, this little patch of Nowhere has had seven dead bodies just apparently appear out of, well, nowhere, in the last two weeks, and the county coroners office is a bit confused.” Garcia explained.

“How so?” JJ asked without looking up from the tablet. 

“Well not one of them is a local, heck; hey don’t seem to even be from the state.” 

“Really?” Morgan questioned. 

“Well then, this is everything you could ever need for a Federal case, multiple bodies and several jurisdictions, wheels up in thirty.” Hotch rose from the table and began heading to his office. 

“What will happen with Jack now?” Rossi enquired, following Hotch out the door and across the bullpen. 

“Well it was supposed to be Jessica, John and their kids as well as me and Jack, so they will all go ahead.” 

“Go ahead, what plans had you for the weekend Hotch?” Morgan snooped. “Camping, cinema.” 

“Orlando, two days in Disney.”

“Whoa, boss man’s been holding out. I bet Jack has been dying to go.” Morgan smiled. 

“He doesn’t know. It’s a surprise.” Spencer could read the blatant disappointment in the SAC’s voice at missing yet another big moment for his son. 

“That’s a hell of a surprise!” Blake commented. 

Rossi placed his hand on Hotch's shoulder. “Next time Aaron.” The unit chief merely nodded, and went into his office, no doubt to call his ex-sister-in-law and explain the circumstances. 

CMCMCMCMCM

The plane cruised steadily towards their destination, the topics of conversation varied in content and persons involved as time went by. At the last minute Strauss had decided to join them and was silently looking out the window in the seat adjacent seat to Spencer. Suddenly a beep caused the team to look towards the monitor as Garcia’s face filled the screen, full of concern. 

“Hey Penelope, what’s got you down.” Morgan smiled, trying to cheer up the clearly perturbed woman. 

“Yeah, so, the tox report came back from victim three, Brad Channing, you know the one with the weird lesion type thingys, well, apparently they are small pox.”

Spencer’s mind went into overdrive. 

“Wait, small pox? Wasn’t that killed off in the 70’s?” Blake pondered aloud.

 

“Mmhmm, which makes no sense since, well Boy Wonder, this is where you come in.” Garcia indicated towards Spencer. 

“Smallpox is also known as the red plague and in Latin Variola Vera, it’s most defining symptom were small fluid filled sores that formed on the skin. It had a mortality rate of anything up to 75 percent. The first known case of it was discovered on the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses the fifth in his tomb. Interestingly Cowpox is a lesser fatal form of the disease and it was noted that milk maids that contracted cowpox seemed somewhat immune to smallpox. From that scientists were able to create a vaccine and by December 9th 1979 it was certified as globally eradicated by a commission of eminent scientists and the World Health Organisation confirmed their findings in a summit on May 8th 1980.” He stated in one breath. He kept it simple enough, he was the only agent in the room to have studied chemistry in such detail, biochemistry was his thesis and he had enjoyed learning about virology. 

“So why is it supposedly popping up again if it is destroyed completely?” Rossi enquired. 

“It’s not.” The oldest agent looked at the youngest. “It is no longer naturally occurring, but it is not completely destroyed. The disease is safely locked in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, while there is another facility in Russia that also has it in their vaults.”

“Wait, so Russia has it too? Why?” JJ asked. 

“Equality, the two superpowers would not be able to use it against each other.” Rossi assumed. 

“Has the CDC been informed?” Hotch asked Garcia. 

“Yes sir, and they have checked and they say that no one has been near the smallpox containment unit in two years other than to do safety checks which does not require actually going at the thing itself apparently. I also got confirmation from the CIA that the Russian ambassador has checked with Moscow, and they are sure their system has not been breached either and wish to have a report on our findings in case they have to mass engineer the vaccine.” Garcia declared. 

“Great, we are being viewed through a microscope from across the Atlantic, that’s always a comforting thought.” Rossi commented. 

“Are we at risk of infection?” Strauss’s voice was filled with concern. 

“I don’t see any reason for us to be; we will not be allowed investigate that particular victim until it is cleared by the relevant people sent from the CDC.” Hotch explained causing Strauss to relax visibly. 

A sudden warning siren went off in Quantico behind Garcia who seemed genuinely startled, looking around her small office as though looking for answers. 

Hotch looked to Strauss. “Was a drill set for today?” She shook her head silently. He turned back to the screen. Spencer sensed mild panic begin to course his veins.

Morgan cut in and got Garcia’s attention “Garcia, this is not a drill. Get out of your office and do exactly what you are trained to do, do you hear me?”

“Derek?” They could clearly hear the fear in her voice. 

“Just do it Penelope.” He reaffirmed. She nodded, rose from the chair and left. The team just watched the monitor, which only showed the tech analyst’s now empty chair and the far wall which had several sheets of paper attached to it. They continued to listen to the alarm, until they heard shouting and the system went dead, leaving a static filled screen. The low lull of the engines was the only noise on the small aircraft for several minutes, no one capable of moving or making a sound. 

Shortly after Hotch snapped out of his shock and took out his phone to see if he could figure out what was going on, but no one in Quantico was answering their department phones. 

“What the hell was that?” Morgan demanded. 

“A bomb threat maybe?” suggested an ashen faced JJ, they were common enough, but seldom an issue. 

Spencer remained silent. Apparently he was the only one to read the department paper on the different alarm calls for different emergencies. Going by the different reactions of those in the room, only he knew something more serious than assumed was taking place in Quantico. And he found himself hoping that Garcia was alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be time jumping with this story, but the date will always be stated at the beginning of each chapter to avoid confusion.


End file.
